Lawyers wrap up arguments in financier Craig Berkman's trial

Nothing about the month-long trial of venture financier Craig Berkman has been quick, including today's closing arguments.

For nearly eight hours in Multnomah County Circuit Court, lawyers for each side blitzed the jury and the overflow audience with one final attempt to tell their version of the story. They made their cases with lawyerly indignation and dashes of courtroom theater.

In an effort to illustrate what he called Berkman's "shell game," Paul Fortino, an investor lawyer, came armed with three faux coconut shells and played a little "hide-the-peanut" for the jury. Fortino represents bcIMC, a huge British Columbia pension fund that lost the bulk of the $51 million it invested with Berkman.

Investors accused Berkman of stealing their money and concealing it. They also sued Arthur Andersen, accountant for Berkman's three funds, claiming the now-defunct firm was negligent when it failed to alert investors to Berkman's actions.

Berkman admits he took $5.2 million and hid his actions for years. But he claims he's paid most of it back.

His lawyer, Paul George, accused investors of waging "the best case that money can buy" in an effort to recoup losses caused not by Berkman, but by the dot.com bust of 2000-01.

"These people will do anything to manipulate the information to show that Mr. Berkman is responsible for everything," George said.

Stan Roman, attorney for Andersen, also pounded the accountability theme. The investors chose to invest in highly speculative venture capital with an industry neophyte. And rather than pay for full-blown financial audits, they hired Andersen to do only compilations, a considerably less thorough type of reporting.

"The investors refuse to take responsibility for their actions," Roman said.

But Steve English, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, said Andersen, as a company of certified public accountants, violated its duty to investors and the public to blow the whistle on Berkman.

"We've proven to you," English told the jury, "that Andersen breached its promise to be the gatekeeper."